“Obviously, the Santa Barbara Police Department is running very scared for them to resort to making malicious and vicious unfounded personal attacks upon me and to falsely accuse me of any wrongdoing for warning the public of an eminent danger.

“I guess it is not surprising that SBPD would try to beat me up in the media and attempt to break the bones of my professional reputation, given how they have circled the wagons in the face of numerous and shocking revelations uncovered by investigative journalist Peter Lance.

“It is disheartening that SBPD could not just do its job protecting the public from thugs, even if the thug turns out to be one of their own.”

Hi pot, my name is kettle. Hilarious…First off, nothing Ofc. Beecher wrote was in any way the views or opinion of the Santa Barbara Police Department, or in anyway done in his official capacity as a police officer, genius. Hard to believe this guy even holds a law degree. And yes, its the POA’s responsibility to come to the defense of officers who are accused of wrong doing. I for one am glad you are being called out Genis. You’ve gone way to far this time. I think the public is losing confidence in you and will soon recognize you for the lying piece of scum you are.

» lou segal on 12.13.11 @ 03:29 AM

Speak for yourself, A123, there are plenty of people who aren’t taking the kool-aid the SBPD is force-feeding you. Listen, when the city, the SBPD and the DA’s office are all stonewalling to defend the misdeeds of our public servants (of course, in your naive, silly world the police can do no wrong), we need a loudmouth attorney who is willing to irritate and even upset a police dept. that makes no effort to investigate any wrongdoing by their personnel.

As for your beloved police officer’s association, their number one objective is to rape the taxpayer with their disgusting, outrageous retirement pension system. Their second objective is to grease politicians with campaign contributions to get them to protect this boondoggle. So stop being their mouthpiece; you’re not fooling anyone.

» Mom of 3 on 12.13.11 @ 10:26 AM

The SBPD should perform an unbiased & thorough investigation of the police officers conduct. Hopefully it will be more thorough & less biased than the recent altercation in the Gelsens parking lot where an officers excessive forceful behavior was witness by several people and clearly observed in the video from the officer’s patrol car.

On another note, I witnessed an officer break a homeless man’s arm in an arrest. I saw with my own eyes, that while the man was slightly intoxicated, he was not resisting arrest and poised no threat to the officer or anyone around him. This was several years ago - which tells me that the situation of excessive force by the SBPD has been long going and does not appear to be improving.

» passing-by on 12.13.11 @ 12:22 PM

LOL… Genis does not like people “making malicious and vicious unfounded personal attacks” !

» John Locke on 12.13.11 @ 02:01 PM

Be glad we have a Genis to take on the questionable (at best) conduct of a few of our officers, their chief, the DA, and several judges. “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”.

» sbdude on 12.13.11 @ 02:23 PM

passing-by, Genis is not on trial here. The willful misconduct of the SBPD, and their blatant disregard for the welfare of the citizens they are allegedly supposed to protect, is.

Accusing Genis of misconduct is the equivalent of childhood back-and-forth name calling, which means the SBPD and the Police Officers Association are out of ideas.

» PGL on 12.13.11 @ 03:04 PM

Genis is his own worst enemy. SBPD has major problems — starting with an AWOL chief of police — but this guy is nothing more than a carnival barker, and a woefully inept one at that. Too bad there’s not a credible attorney willing to take on this case. Genis is the BEST we can do?! Seriously?!

» grundss on 12.13.11 @ 03:25 PM

the Darryl Genis fan club has wasted no time in hustling to the keyboards this morning in defence of their champion.

do y’all have a xmas picture with your pointy hats?

» LegendaryYeti on 12.13.11 @ 04:20 PM

I think sooner or later the State Bar is going to have a look at how Mr. Genis operates…

» publius on 12.13.11 @ 06:28 PM

Law enforcement and court officials are officially constrained from commenting on specifics of cases, or behaviors, by professional, and employer, behavior codes.

No reason to believe that lawyer Genis is a self-promoting ambulance chaser, as
opposed to an enlarged Donald Trump “confident personality”.

But for the public at large, this public pissing contest among Peter Lance, Genis,
law enforcement people, in the news media rather than the courts, is confusing
and disturbing.

Lance’s behavior at the City of SB last week was nothing to write home about.
The fact that Mr. Genis “gave his time” to client Lance to spout insults at one
and all did not well become either of them.

But public rudeness in no way diminishes the possibility that they are partly
right.

Time will tell. It usually does.

Until then, why don’t we give it a rest?

» John Locke on 12.13.11 @ 07:15 PM

OK, all you Genis-haters: but for him who would be speaking up? Whether Genis is an “ambulance chaser”, a “carnival barker” or any other epithet you blind protectors of the SBPD call him, we should all be thankful he is exposing issues. Should an independent investigation be held? Damn right it should, and not by anyone local or anyone related to anyone local either personally or professionaly. Starting with Kasi Beutel and those who managed to protect her from having to testify for so long, and continuing right up through and beyond these latest accusations and into the job performance of Sanchez.

The police must be above any hint of suspicion in order to be the trusted and respected servants of the public they are chartered to be - the SBPD has failed this test repeatedly in recent months, maybe years, who knows? And guess what? If Genis brings a federal suit, the city will have to defend against it - might be cheaper for the Council and Admin to grow a pair and fix the problem.

If, as I believe, the vast majority of officers are “clean”, then they should demand of Sanchez that he protect their reputations by finding and prosecuting the “dirty” ones, not hide behind their union contracts.

» PGL on 12.13.11 @ 09:09 PM

Excuse me John Locke. Just because I think Genis is an imbecilic publicity whore doesn’t make me a “blind protector” of the SBPD.

As I’ve said repeatedly: Sanchez should be fired, along with a couple of his gangsters with badges. Next, the entire department should be scrubbed with disinfectant.

What I can’t quite figure out is whether it’s Sanchez who runs the city or the police union. What IS clear is that it’s not the mayor, the city council or the city administrator. I don’t know what kind of dirt that SBPD has on them, but there’s not an ounce of courage among the lot of them.

» Validated on 12.13.11 @ 11:46 PM

Let’s trace this war on SBPD back a bit. Let’s not forget how the News-Press declared war on the police department, it’s officers, and their union because of ideology. The Peter Lance case was a publicity stunt contrived after the old drunk got arrested. Bringing on Genis in the DeNunzio case was just piling on for headlines, which equals money.

I say let the State Attorney General investigate any CREDIBLE accusations. If SBPD or it’s officers did wrong they will pay. If the evidence shows the News-Press cooked up these stories then let them pay the officers for damages, like they must do for violating the NLRB rights of their former employees. Genis should then face State bar sanctions for being their lackey.

» lou segal on 12.14.11 @ 04:43 AM

Validated, you gave yourself away when you let your vitriol at the News-Press permeate your post. So, either you were a former employee or a union worker and now can’t separate your anger with the News-Press from their coverage of the SBPD. Before commenting on this issue of abusive practices of the SBPD, why don’t you first work out your obvious issues with the News-Press because your objectivity is seriously compromised. If the New-Press made critical comments of Hitler, you would probably rush to his defense.

» John Locke on 12.14.11 @ 12:52 PM

@PGL: but without Genis going public, how would all this stuff ever come out? Not because of responsible city/police leadership, that’s for sure. I’ve also been advocating for an independent investigation, but I believe it won’t happen without public pressure and Genis and the NewPress are the prime generators of that pressure, like them or not.

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